AX 3 DOMAINES, France — At his first real opportunity, Chris Froome blew away his main Tour de France rivals with a supersonic burst Saturday, a fierce uphill climb that felt a little like the bad old days of Lance Armstrong.

But the Briton who took the race leader’s yellow jersey, and looks more likely than ever to keep it all the way to the finish in Paris on July 21, insisted there are fundamental differences between then and now.

Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour titles last year for serial doping. Froome promised that his achievements won’t need to be erased in the future.

“It is a bit of a personal mission to show that the sport has changed,” Froome said. “I certainly know that the results I’m getting, they’re not going to be stripped — 10, 20 years down the line. Rest assured, that’s not going to happen.”

Froome hasn’t come out of nowhere. The 28-year-old was the Tour runner-up last year to teammate Bradley Wiggins, runner-up at the Tour of Spain in 2011 and has been the dominant rider this year coming into the Tour.

Drug testing in cycling is also better and more credible than it was when Armstrong and his U.S. Postal Service teammates were pumping themselves with hormones, blood transfusions and other banned performance-enhancers.

While improved doping controls do not guarantee that the 198 riders who started the Tour on June 29 are competing clean, they do allow Froome’s generation to argue more convincingly that they are a different and more believable breed of competitors from those who doped systematically in the 1990s and 2000s.

“It’s normal that people ask questions in cycling, given the history of the sport. That’s an unfortunate position we find ourselves in at the moment, that eyebrows are going to be raised, questions are going to be asked about our performances,” Froome said.

“But I know the sport’s changed. There’s absolutely no way I’d be able to get these results if the sport hadn’t changed. I mean, if you look at it logically we know that the sport’s in a better place now than it was, has been, ever, I think, for the last 20, 30 years.”

Compounding the 49ers’ 0-3 start is that their past two defeats have come against NFC West rivals. Up next is another division opponent Sunday, when the 49ers visit the Arizona Cardinals. Here are some answers to pressing questions: Did Hoyers second half performance save him from a benching this season? — Far Side of Sports (@FarSideOfSports) September 25, 2017 At...